China’s urbanisation process, which will hit its stride in the next 10 to 20 years, has created new opportunities for investors today, CFS Global Asset Management’s (CFSGAM) regional head said yesterday.
CFSGAM regional managing director for Australia and New Zealand Joanna Davison said there’s more to the story than demand for hard commodities such as coal, iron ore and other ingredients used to make steel.
Agribusiness stocks will also benefit, she said.
Davison spoke to InvestorDaily ahead of a talk to be delivered to the Melbourne Financial Services Symposium.
Davison said demand for beef, chicken and pork would rise as more of China’s population experienced the higher disposable income that goes with the move to the city from the country, where rice and vegetables are staples.
“If you look at the meat consumption of China, compared to the meat consumption per person per head in Hong Kong, it’s double,” she said.
“In Hong Kong in 2009, the average meat consumption was 120 kilograms per person per annum. In China, it was 58 kilograms.”
She said it would take at least 15 years for China’s meat intake to catch up with that of Hong Kong but the dietary change would also spur demand for soft commodities, such as grain, meat, vegetable oil and sugar.
“What that means from an investment perspective is, what we should be thinking about is not just Vale and BHP and Rio Tinto, but also global listed agribusiness companies.”
Fertiliser companies and stocks related to other aspects of higher yield farming would also stand to gain.
In India, urban migration is at an earlier stage than in China. Nonetheless, the shift to city life has sparked greater demand for toothpaste, shampoo and even disposable nappies, as well as Coca-Cola and computers, Davison said.
“Take companies, like Unilever, Colgate-Palmolive, Coca-Cola Amatil and Microsoft. They get a significant portion of their revenues form emerging economies,” she said.
“Because of the size of these populations, it only takes a small increase in demand to have a huge multiplier effect on these companies.”
